3. Struggle for Leadership, 1924-28

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About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, we follow Stalin's career in the years following the death of Lenin, as he became the undisputed leader of Communist Party – and of Soviet Russia. In particular, we focus on: (i) the state of affairs in 1924, including the impact of the New Economic Policy and the state's control of major industries; (ii) the division of the party between a radical wing, led by Trotsky, and more moderate members such as Bukharin, and Stalin's position between the two; (iii) the political self-destruction of Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev and Bukharin, leaving Stalin as the last man standing; and (iv) Stalin's view of the state of the nation in 1926/27 and his priorities for the next five years.

Course

In this course, Professor Christopher Read (University of Warwick) examines the rise of Joseph Stalin from his birth in 1878 to the eve of the Second World War in 1938. We begin in the first module by thinking about his early life, including upbringing in Georgia, his early education, and – later – his involvement with industrial workers in Tiflis and Baku. In the second module, we trace Stalin's political rise from his appointment to the Central Committee of the Communist Party in 1912, up to Lenin's death in 1924. In the third module, we follow Stalin as he becomes undisputed leader of the Communist Party, before moving on in the fourth and fifth modules to consider two major strands of Stalinst policy: Collectivization and Industrialization. In the sixth module, we think about the period of Stalin's rule known as the Terror – what caused it, how it proceeded, why it ended, and what it achieved – before moving on in the seventh module to consider how Stalin might have seen himself and the state of Russia in 1938, and what (if anything) held the policies of the previous ten years together.

Lecturer

Christopher Read is Professor of Twentieth-Century European History at the University of Warwick. He specialises in the intellectual history of the Russian intelligentsia in the crucial years between 1900 and 1925 and the social history of the Russian Revolution. His recent publications include Lenin: A Revolutionary Life (2005) and War and Revolution in Russia: 1914-22 (2013).